Thursday, December 27, 2012

Take a Walk on Street View

After all that Christmas excess it is time to take a little exercise to burn off all the added weight gained over the holidays. Alternatively you could just sit back and relax and take a little stroll with Google Maps Street View.

Here are a few applications that can even help you to avoid having to tire out your fingers by constantly pressing the forward arrow in Street View:

Street View Drives
Here's an old one from me. Street View Drives lets you choose from a number of different locations and view an animated Street View tour. Street View Drives is different from most other Street View animations as it actually allows you to change the camera view as the tour plays.

There are a few blank tours on here. Where Google have updated the Street View imagery and I (shamefully) haven't updated the tour the animation won't work. However you can easily tell which tours are broke from the blank thumbnail images on the home screen.

Google Maps Street View Player
The advantage of Brian Folt's Street View application over mine is that here you can create your own Street View tours.

Just enter a starting address and a destination and the Street View Player will create an animated tour for you. The Street View Player also includes controls that allow you to pause, speed up or slow down the animation.

Map Channels Street View Driver
Map Channels Street View Driver includes even more functionality. This application allows you to take a little more control over the Street View animation by including 'left' and 'right' steering buttons.

As the animation plays the user can turn left or right onto other streets simply by clicking on left and right. You can also jump to another location by simply clicking anywhere on the map.